Daily Archives: May 1, 2018

Mass Extinction, Soon?

It’s no secret that that an asteroid impact 65 million years ago caused a chain of environmental disasters. Countless species were driven to extinction, evaporated by the impact, suffocated by volcanic ash, eradicated by the rapid climate change. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever have the technology to predict when the next extinction event will happen. […] Continue reading

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What Is Hyperthermophile

Hyperthermophile is an organism that is able to live and thrive at high temperatures, compared to the suitable environment for survival for most of the lives on Earth. For example, a hyperthermophile can handle a temperature above 80°C, which is 176-degree Fahrenheit. The first identified hyperthermophile is Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, which is both a hyperthermophile and … Continue reading What Is Hyperthermophile Continue reading

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Life in Our Solar System

One of the biggest questions that philosophers and scientists alike ask: Are we alone in the universe? Is it possible that there’s sentient life outside of our small blue planet? The Fermi Paradox asks us this question. The universe is so big. Using even the most conservative estimations of exoplanets in the habitable zone, calculations […] Continue reading

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Life in Our Solar System

One of the biggest questions that philosophers and scientists alike ask: Are we alone in the universe? Is it possible that there’s sentient life outside of our small blue planet? The Fermi Paradox asks us this question. The universe is so big. Using even the most conservative estimations of exoplanets in the habitable zone, calculations […] Continue reading

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From Blink-182 to Alien Hunting

Ex-Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge quit the band back in 2015 to get serious about his search for extraterrestrial life. While this may sound ridiculous, this dude is actually supported by more than just his mom. He started a new institution called the “To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science” and works alongside former Deputy Assistant Secretary … Continue reading From Blink-182 to Alien Hunting Continue reading

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Unusual Extremophiles

We’ve discussed the various types of extremophiles and brainstormed some potential habitats for these microbes, but there are some examples that I think are worth hearing. Snottites are these cave-dwelling microbes that ingest volcanic sulfur and excrete acidic compounds. Their name comes from the fact that colonies of snottites actually appear slimy and almost snot-like. The … Continue reading Unusual Extremophiles Continue reading

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Not-So-Astronomical Budgets

Featured image Getting things to space is no small feat. It requires a lot of manpower, intelligence, time, and, unfortunately, money. Space exploration, travel, and research are certainly worthy pursuits – I don’t think many people are opposed to what NASA does. But their projects seem to cost a lot of money, and is sometimes … Continue reading Not-So-Astronomical Budgets Continue reading

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The Fate of Our Solar System

With this being the final blog of the semester, I thought it would be fitting to write about the eventual fate of our Solar System – In approximately 5 billion years, as our Sun’s lifetime on the Main Sequence comes to end, the Sun (through the process of converting  gravitational potential energy to thermal energy) […] Continue reading

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50 Ways to Make a (Golden) Record

Featured image I’ve always found the Golden Record very interesting. It represents a special moment in humanity’s history, when we decided what particular parts of our existence on Earth we wanted to show to any other possible life forms in the universe. What, then, did we decide to put on it? How did we reach … Continue reading 50 Ways to Make a (Golden) Record Continue reading

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A new Stellar Catalog

A new two-year long study done by the European Space Agency has created the most comprehensive survey of the universe ever recorded. The Gaia project has cataloged over 1.7 billion stars, 14,000 asteroids and numerous galaxies and galaxy clusters spread throughout the universe. What started out as a relatively small affair eventually exploded into a … Continue reading A new Stellar Catalog Continue reading

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